Speaker 1: Nineteen boxers competed in the nineteen sixty Olympic Games, and
Speaker 1: after three rounds of wins, Australian Tony Madigan reached the
Speaker 1: semi finals looking for a place in the gold medal bout.
Speaker 1: His opponent was only a teenager, a promising but little
Speaker 1: known amateur boxing in his first ever Olympics. His name
Speaker 1: Cassius clay Hey. Welcome to the pool room where we
Speaker 1: celebrate the winners, losers and the weird stuff between. I'm
Speaker 1: Tony Armstrong Anthony Morgan. Madigan loved to throw a punch.
Speaker 1: His boxing career began as an eight year old before
Speaker 1: it fully bloomed. He played first class rugby in Sydney,
Speaker 1: London and New York, but boxing was his real love.
Speaker 1: He started as a middleweight at the Helsinki Games in
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty two. When he arrived in Finland, Tony only
Speaker 1: had fifteen fights to his name. He'd had to raise
Speaker 1: the seven hundred and fifty pounds himself to get to
Speaker 1: the Olympics, borrowing from friends and fans who believed in
Speaker 1: his talent. That year, he finished fifth, but he wasn't deterred.
Speaker 1: He would fight again. Then West Germany nineteen fifty five,
Speaker 1: and Tony was making a living in Europe selling encyclopedias.
Speaker 1: On icy winter roads. Headed to the ski fields, he
Speaker 1: swerved to avoid a t and lost control of his car.
Speaker 1: His passenger was killed in the accident, and Madigan suffered
Speaker 1: serious injuries that could have been career ending, but Tony's
Speaker 1: tenacity prevailed. He fought again in Melbourne in nineteen fifty six.
Speaker 1: Once again he finished fifth. Lucky for him, neither the
Speaker 1: accident nor the boxing did any lasting damage, especially to
Speaker 1: his face. He had a strong jaw and cheekbones for days,
Speaker 1: and in the fifties he moved to London to unleash
Speaker 1: he's best blue steel. Those good looks took him from
Speaker 1: Europe to New York, appearing in magazine ads and TV
Speaker 1: spots advertising beer, men's products and other stuff were not
Speaker 1: allowed to advertise anymore. Actually, his modeling career almost cost
Speaker 1: him his Olympic medal. When he came home to Usustralia
Speaker 1: for selection trials, the selectors had already picked another bloke,
Speaker 1: assuming Tony had made a permanent shift overseas to be
Speaker 1: professionally handsome. But he rocked up anyway, determined to face
Speaker 1: off against the other guy at Queensland, the named Ken
Speaker 1: Marshall and take his place in the national team. Officials
Speaker 1: didn't like it, but when Madigan thrashed Marshall in a
Speaker 1: box off, they didn't have much choice but to send
Speaker 1: him to Rome. He arrived in Italy ready to face
Speaker 1: almost anyone. Almost. Madigan and Clay had met before, only
Speaker 1: eighteen months earlier, at the Intercity Golden Gloves Light Heavyweight
Speaker 1: Championships in Chicago. Clay had won twice, both times on
Speaker 1: the judges' cards. This time a spot in the gold
Speaker 1: medal bout was on the line. Madigan was twelve years older,
Speaker 1: but Clay already had one hundred victories under his ball.
Speaker 1: After five tough rounds of fighting, it came down to points.
Speaker 1: The judges scored at seventy sixty seven and Clay won unanimously.
Speaker 1: The Sydney sports journal Ernie Christensen wrote that Tony had
Speaker 1: been robbed. In fact, heaps of people thought Madigan should
Speaker 1: have gone through to the final bout. According to legend
Speaker 1: and onlookers, the crowd booed for so long that they
Speaker 1: delayed the next fight for several minutes. Although if you've
Speaker 1: ever seen Ossy's in a sporting crowd, you know they'll
Speaker 1: boo pretty much anything, so who can say. Clay went
Speaker 1: on to win the gold in nineteen sixty four. He
Speaker 1: went pro, defending his heavyweight World Championship title nineteen times.
Speaker 1: Rome was his only Olympic medal. According to Tony's friend
Speaker 1: Anthony abrahams Cassius had once said, you won the fight,
Speaker 1: but I got the medal. Total hearsay, but maybe a
Speaker 1: reflection of how beloved Tony was and how much Australia
Speaker 1: wanted him to win. Decades after the fight in Rome,
Speaker 1: Tony was in Atlantic City. It was nineteen eighty eight
Speaker 1: and the famous once and for all about between Mike
Speaker 1: Tyson and Michael Spinx was about to get underway. Tony's
Speaker 1: long ago opponent had become one of the greatest boxers
Speaker 1: of all time, unbelievably famous, a living legend. Abraham says
Speaker 1: there was a commotion at the door as the man
Speaker 1: now known as Muhammad Ali entered, surrounded by fans. The
Speaker 1: icon looked up, embraced his form of and said, Tony Madigan,
Speaker 1: we're both getting old. On his return from Rome, Tony
Speaker 1: Madigan made another attempt at a showbiz career and appeared
Speaker 1: in a single episode of Whiplash and Australian Western set
Speaker 1: in the nineteenth century outback, not a genre we've really
Speaker 1: seen again. Surprisingly, it didn't blow the socks off any
Speaker 1: reviewers and it wasn't Tony Madigan's big acting break. Madigan's
Speaker 1: focus shifted. Eventually he settled into a quieter life in
Speaker 1: the South of France, where he indulged his love of
Speaker 1: sailing and so not. Having managed to make his name
Speaker 1: as a Hollywood hunk, Madigan entered the record books as
Speaker 1: a boxer. He fought everywhere from London to New Zealand.
Speaker 1: In two thousand he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal,
Speaker 1: and in twenty ten he was inducted into the Australian
Speaker 1: National Boxing Hall of Fame. He's not our best performing amateur,
Speaker 1: but Tony Madigan is still remembered as one of our greatest.
Speaker 1: No Australian boxer has more Olympic appearances than him, and
Speaker 1: his bronze medal is one of only six we've ever
Speaker 1: won for Olympic boxing. But of course, most memorably, in
Speaker 1: his whole career, only two men ever beat him more
Speaker 1: than once. Australian Frek Casey was one and the other
Speaker 1: was Muhammad Ali. Thanks for hanging out in the pool room.
Speaker 1: I'm Tony Armstrong and this has been an iHeart production.
Speaker 1: I'll speak to you next time for another brilliant sports story.
Speaker 1: See ya.